Ahead of the Curve: Keeping FLIGBY at the Leading Edge of Experiential Learning – Interview with FLIGBY’s CEO
A conversation with Zsadány Vécsey, co-founder and CEO of the ALEAS Group, the producer of FLIGBY. Zsadány, or “Zad” as he’s known in the FLIGBY community, has led the team since it started. Next, we asked him about the current challenges in the professional development market and his plans to keep FLIGBY near the top.
Under Pressure
Q: As the head of ALEAS Group, you have a unique perspective on the development of simulation-based online learning. How do you view the current landscape, and how is FLIGBY performing in this rapidly changing market?
A: The landscape of simulation-based online learning is experiencing a fundamental change—arguably the most critical shift in educational technology in decades. Three significant forces are converging, and at ALEAS Group, we aim not just to respond to these changes but to actively shape them.
- First, the expectations of both corporate and academic learners have become much more sophisticated. Users now demand online content that is not only engaging but also highly personal, reflecting their individual learning styles and professional contexts. Passive, generic content is no longer enough. Our scenario-based approach, where every decision branches the narrative and customizes feedback for the individual, directly responds to this need for personalization and engagement.
- Second, today’s learners demand true flexibility—they seek self-paced learning that fits into their busy schedules and is accessible anytime, anywhere. The rise of mobile learning is undeniable: people want to learn during commutes, between meetings, or whenever they have a moment.
- Third, these changing expectations are shaping new business models. As more people use personal devices for work and learning, individual users now have greater influence over which applications they select for their professional and academic growth. Decision-making power is shifting from institutions to end users, making user experience and accessibility just as crucial as traditional institutional features.
Furthermore, the line between institutional learning and personal development is becoming less distinct. Users expect learning platforms to support both their professional growth and personal goals. This convergence means our marketing and communication strategies are increasingly aimed at engaging individual users directly, even when working with large organizations.
Q: How do all these trends impact ALEAS’ activities? Do they already influence FLIGBY, or only affect your upcoming solutions?
A: For FLIGBY, these trends have created significant opportunities. Our foundation in Professor Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory and our dedication to research-backed, immersive experiences have helped us to thrive. We’re experiencing strong performance, particularly in our ability to provide personalized feedback and benchmarking that support both individual and organizational goals. The market itself is growing rapidly, with simulation-based learning expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 12–22% through 2030.
In light of this, we have substantially redesigned FLIGBY and developed a new professional and business alliance system that can deliver innovative solutions to the market.
Q: Alright, let’s now discuss the specifics. How do you upgrade FLIGBY? What new features are coming soon?
A: We’re fundamentally changing FLIGBY’s business model to make it much more accessible and attractive to the rapidly growing personal development (B2C) market, which is increasingly driven by individual users. Starting December 1, 2025, we’re introducing a new, competitive pricing structure tailored for personal users. Now, anyone can access FLIGBY for as little as $60—and that includes our brand-new Top5 Assessment, which highlights your five most frequently demonstrated people skills during gameplay.
Why is this special? It’s not just another online assessment. With Top5, you receive advanced, actionable analytics based on your gameplay—offering a dynamic, game-driven snapshot of your actual leadership behavior. And thanks to our new pricing, you can access something much more innovative than traditional tools like hardcover books or well-known assessments such as MBTI or Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, all at the same cost or even less.
Closing the Learning Loop: Empowering FLIGBY Learners with Self-Paced Feedback
Q: And what new developments can we anticipate in product development?
A: We’re dedicated to supporting users throughout their entire personal development journey, not just during simulational gameplay. Starting this December, we’ll introduce a suite of online courses closely linked to the FLIGBY experience, including briefing and debriefing modules. These will help make your FLIGBY experience truly self-paced and comprehensive.
The first course: Our official onboarding program, hosted by Prof. Zoltan Buzady—recently awarded “Lecturer of the Year” at his university—will guide new users on how to get the most out of FLIGBY. The official decoding (debriefing) course will be available three weeks after.
We already have two more innovative courses scheduled for release in Q2 and Q3 of 2026. While their content is still under wraps, I can promise they will significantly improve the effectiveness of simulation-based experiential learning—offering much more than standard “talking head” video lessons.
Q: Over the past two years, FLIGBY has established itself in the skills assessment market, in addition to personal development. With the upcoming launch of your ‘Top5’ as an entry-level solution, is there anything else in the pipeline?
A: We’re not stopping at the Top5. Our team is hard at work on my personal favorite upcoming feature: the Major League Leadership Assessment. Developed in partnership with Howard Fero—also known as the Leadership Doc—this tool will provide users with a unique perspective on their leadership skills, drawing parallels with the strategies and teamwork of America’s top baseball teams. It’s a fun, insightful way to see your strengths through an entirely new lens.
“To infinity and beyond”
Q: Is this already part of FLIGBY’s new strategic alliance you mentioned earlier?
A: Partly, yes. We emphasize integrating creative and innovative perspectives into FLIGBY’s world—like analyzing managerial capabilities through one of the most competitive arenas globally, America’s professional baseball league. This unique approach adds a fresh and engaging dimension to how users understand their leadership skills.
However, our strategy extends further. We are considering broader alliances to enhance FLIGBY’s position and make it more accessible across different platforms and user needs. To achieve this, we are actively developing cross-platform solutions that will enable FLIGBY to reach and serve a larger audience more seamlessly. This comprehensive approach ensures that our innovations are not just isolated upgrades but part of a bigger vision to evolve FLIGBY into a versatile, user-centered learning ecosystem.
We have gained significant experience from the experimental “Late Shift” project, which, together with FLIGBY, is playing an increasingly important role in our revenue, especially targeting high school and college students.
Q: Is this a move toward mobile devices?
A: Think more out of the box. In our vision, multiplatform capability means much more than just switching from laptops to handheld devices. On the same note, most of our users still prefer laptops for learning. We’re working on something much more fundamental and disruptive. We believe the future of learning isn’t just about moving between screens or devices — it’s about shifting between functions and experiences.
The true cross-platform approach, as we see it, involves blending entertainment and professional learning in ways that haven’t been done before. That’s why we’re taking a bold step: we’re working on integrating the “ultimate” big screens—cinema’s theatrical canvases—with our assessment platform. Imagine starting your learning journey at the cinema, watching an interactive Hollywood movie, and then seamlessly continuing your experience with game results assessments on your phone or laptop.
This is a truly immersive, hybrid approach that goes beyond traditional e-learning boundaries. It’s about creating a cohesive, engaging journey that follows you across environments and devices, combining the best of entertainment and professional growth. We’re confident that this kind of innovation will set a new standard for what cross-platform learning can mean—making it not just seamless, but truly transformative for our users.
Q: Wow, that sounds quite futuristic—definitely not something we’ll see in the next couple of years, right?
A: Honestly, it might sound futuristic, but we’re actually planning to start implementing this vision as early as next year. This is exactly where the new strategic alliance I mentioned earlier becomes essential. We’ve partnered with Hollywood’s leading interactive movie lab, CtrlMovie, to develop a project that combines our strengths in cinematic presentation, video streaming, and self-paced online learning—creating an experience where entertainment and professional growth truly come together. This presents a challenge on a scale we’ve never faced before. Not only do the financing needs surpass anything we’ve handled before, but the expected user numbers and the technical complexity are also at a whole new level. Of course, the potential impact on the entire learning industry is enormous. We’ve become part of an exciting and dedicated global project that’s determined to forever change how people think about watching movies and learning from them.
While many details are still confidential, this new project will showcase FLIGBY in a whole new light starting in 2027. It’s a bold step, but one that perfectly matches our goal of making learning immersive, accessible, and truly transformative.
The Year of the Turning Point
Q: In summary, what are your expectations for 2026?
Looking ahead to 2026, I am very optimistic and energized about the direction we’re heading. We are entering a transformative phase where FLIGBY will become more accessible and personalized than ever before, thanks to our new pricing model and the launch of innovative features like a suite of self-paced online courses. These developments will empower individual users to take control of their personal development journeys in ways that truly align with their needs and lifestyles.
At the same time, we are pushing the limits of what simulation-based learning can achieve by combining entertainment with professional development in innovative ways. Naturally, this involves challenges—technical complexity, scale, and funding—but being part of such a forward-thinking global team gives me strong confidence. In summary, 2026 will be a year of bold innovation, broader reach, and deeper engagement for FLIGBY and ALEAS Group. We are prepared to lead the way in redefining how people learn, grow, and connect through simulation experiences.
(This interview was conducted by Judit Nuszpl on November 28, 2025, exclusively for FLIGBY.com.)
